Monday, December 29th, 2008

A Big Cabernet Night, yet again.

This seems to be our most frequent theme. I'm nearly embaressed to admit how often I'll revert back to Napa Cabernet, but it is what it is. I love Napa Cab.

This was a great line-up of wine. Not only could I not choose a clear winner for most of the night, I couldn't even select one clear loser. All of the wines were excellent and had unique qualities that made them valuable.

Grace Family, Cabernet Sauvignon, Blank Vineyard, Napa, 2005
This was awesome and so unique. I'll attribute its uniqueness to the fact that it comes "entirely from the Grace Family Clone" of Cabernet Sauvignon. It had very distinct eucalyptus/minty aromas. Almost remindful of a Chilean Cab, but far richer and more opulent. It had superb balance. It was lower-key than these other wines, with it's alcohol clocking in at respectable 13.9%. It showed at its best between hour 1 to 2. During the first hour it was just slightly tight. After 2 hours it lost a slight bit of luster. During that second hour, it was just singing. Round tannin, plush fruit, exotic herbaceousness, a bit of depth and just all around enjoyment.


Pride, Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Sonoma/Napa, 2004
What needs to be said about Pride? The wines are sooooo dependable, it's really uncanny. Very ripe, very polished, plush, velvety, and just an awesome wine. It never really teaches me anything new, but I just love to drink it. It certainly has a place in my life. I love drinking the stuff.

Leonetti, Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Walla Walla, Washington, 2005

This was awesome. It was just plush, and ripe and layered, with a lot of evolution over the 3 hours that we enjoyed it. It continually changed and was equally great with each turn. I could identify no flaws in this wine. It is near-perfect. One character that made it identifiably different than the California wines was a darker element. A dark cherry and dark, bittersweet chocolate flavor. The wine tasted "black" if that makes sense, while the other Cabernet's tasted dark purple and even red at times. I liked it a lot.

Schrader, Cabernet Sauvginon, Beckstoffer's To Kalon, 2006

So . . . Parker just reviewed this wine last week and scored it 98+ points. Aaron got a little antsy and wanted to pop the cork, being the good friend that I am, I offered to help him consume it. This is how this tasting came to be.

I hate to give more credence to Parker's scores, but at the end of the night, this wine did seem to emerge as the most complete wine. As with many Cult Cabs, this was ULTRA-ripe. Because of that, it handles and integrates a tremendous amount of oak. Further, the oak is delicious and adds a lot of spicy and sexy complexity that some of these others wines didn't possess. The funny thing is, this wine seemed closed to me, but it was still flashier than the other wines!!! Over the 3 hours of decanting, it unpacked about 20 layers of nuance, but still seemed completely underdeveloped in the grand scheme of it's life!

Schrader really has emerged as one of the most prolific producers in Napa, and they continue to push the envelope of ripeness, opulance, complexity, and overall quality each vintage. And the most amazing part is that the wines don't taste "over-done". I'm becoming a big critic of over-ripe, over-alcoholic, over-extracted wines, and yet, these wines are flawlessly balanced. I can't help but admit that they challange my realm of understanding about Napa Cabs. Well done, Schrader!

Dalla Valle, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa, 2001

This wine was flat and lean with a dusty, raw tannin. Didn't much care for it all.